Water is critical for life and is integral to virtually all economic activities, including food production and industry. Not only is clean water a prerequisite for human health and well-being, it provides aquatic habitats that support healthy freshwater ecosystems.

Waterbase is the generic name given to the EEA databases on the status and quality of Europes rivers, lakes, groundwater bodies and transitional, coastal and marine waters, and on the quantity of Europes water resources

Urban Waste Water treatment Directive concerns the collection, treatment and discharge of urban waste water and the treatment and discharge of waste water from certain industrial sectors. The objective of the Directive is to protect the environment from the adverse effects of the above mentioned waste water discharges.

The map shows the ecological status or potential of European lakes and reservoirs, expressed using a specific biological quality element (BQE), namely phytoplankton, reported by EEA member countries via WISE. The ecological status class is assessed by each country according to their national classification system, following the principles established by the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The assessment may be based by one or more samples taken during the year of reporting. The map displays the latest reported information under the WISE SoE reporting, so the year of reference may vary. Note that under the WFD reporting, the ecological status or potential based on all BQEs combined is represented by the BQE with the worst class - the "one-out-all-out" principle - which does not apply here, given that only one BQE is represented and that the reporting is done annually. The purpose of the map to enable the user to compare values per country or per monitoring station, depending on the scale of visualisation.

The map shows the location of the water quality monitoring stations reported by EEA member countries via WISE SoE reporting. The purpose is to provide an overview of the spatial distribution and density of monitoring stations per water body category: rivers (including canals), lakes (including reservoirs), groundwater, and transitional, coastal and marine waters. The map displays all stations ever reported since 1992, so not all are currently active.

The map shows the mean annual concentration of nitrates (NO3), expressed as milligrams of NO3-N per litre of water, observed in groundwater monitoring stations and reported by EEA member countries via WISE. The purpose of the map is to provide an overview of the mean annual value of nitrates in groundwater across Europe and to enable the user to compare values per country or per groundwater body, depending on the scale of visualisation. Historical data since 2000 can be displayed using the time slider, and different horizons can be selected using the layers menu.